The present invention relates generally to a wireless data transmission method, and more particularly to a wireless location information transmission via cellular communication system such as cellular phone. A position data producer generates position data and passes to a cellular phone. This cellular phone sends the position data to base station during each location updating procedure.
The service area in a cellular communication system is arranged into appropriate network of contiguous radio cells. Each cell has a base station that utilizes an associated set of radio channels to effectively connect to any mobile station located in the cell. The systems uses two types of duplex channels. Control channels are used to transfer system-control data to and from mobiles, and voice channels provide a link for speech or data transmissions and in-call supervisory tones. The base stations are connected, via the conventional landline system or microwave links, to a mobile switching center (MSC). It is the MSC that controls the connection of the mobiles to each other and to the national and international telephone system.
Because mobile users are always on the move, the mechanisms that the networks use to locate each of us within wireless communication networks are important. This is referred to as roaming and call routing. With roaming agreements in place it does not matter where we are. We are connected and people can find us. We get service and we can make calls. Current mobile communication networks and personal communication systems support roaming and call routing described as above. The global system for mobile communications (GSM) is one of the examples. Another example is the personal communication systems (PCS) 1900. These systems even have country roaming capability. When we travel to another country which has roaming agreement, we still can get mobile communication services.
The most important tool used for finding phones within mobile wireless communication networks is location updating. The location of a mobile station is uniquely identified by the mobile country code (MCC), the mobile network code (MNC), and the location area identity (LAI). The MCC is a three-digit value that identifies the country where the network located. The MNC is a two-digit value that identifies different networks within one country. The LAI identifies the physical area in which a mobile station is located. A location area may consist of one or more physical cells; it is also referred as a paging area, in which a network designates as a mobile station""s location for paging tasks.
With each location updating procedure, the mobile station, such as a cellular phone as partially shown in FIG. 2, reads its location from the control channel transmitted by its serving base transceiver station (BTS) 31 and reports it back to the network. In a wireless communication network, two registers store the location-related data of a mobile station: the home location register (HLR) 34 and the visitor location register (VLR) 35. The HLR 34 keeps data that are permanently associated with individual mobile stations as well as the current location. The permanent data include subscription details such as the teleservices, bearer services, and supplementary services allocated to the subscriber. The VLR 35 keeps temporary data on a subscriber for only as long as the subscriber is located in the area belonging to a particular VLR. The temporary data contains the subscription-related data (obtained from the subscriber""s HLR) as well as the mobile station""s exact location in the VLR""s area. The position data of a mobile station is given by the base station controller 32. The resolution of the location area is the same as the base station controllers (BSCs).
For example, within a base station controller 32 having a coverage area of 100 square miles, you may determine whether the mobile station is in this area according to the position data provided by the base station controller 32. However, there is no way to obtain any exact location information from this locate updating procedure.
On the other hand, although a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver obtains positioning information from satellites, which is processed to provide position data by a position data producer. However, only the user of GPS receiver and position data producer can access such position data. Therefore, most of the positioning systems, including the GPS systems and the IMU systems, are merely applied in vehicles such as airplanes and ships. Some mini GPS systems can also be carried by individuals such as mountain climbers and explorers so as to help them to find out their own exact locations.
However, if a particular person""s position or location must be tracked by others for safety or security reason, very accurate and expensive equipment must be employed to send and receive the position data from the particular person. Therefore, only specific people such as the military officers or government agents can afford such technology for special mission. The convenience of positioning information still can not be publicly applied and be utilized in our daily lives.
It is a main objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, wherein one can obtain the exact location of any particular cellular phone user through the cellulose phone system.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, so that the cellular phone users can obtain their positions from their cellular phones easily.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, wherein one can obtain another cellular phone user""s location from the base station of the cellular phone.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, wherein one can obtain another cellular phone user""s location by making phone call to that cellular phone.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, wherein non-dialing is required to send out the position data. In fact, the position data of the mobile station (cellular handset) is available and continuously transmitted to the base station via a cellular handset when the handset is powered on.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, wherein once the cellular phone of the user is powered on, the cellular phone""s position, i.e. the cellular phone user""s location, is available by sending position data to the base station along with each location updating procedure of that cellular phone. Moreover, the cellular phone users may willfully choose to provide or block their position data.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, wherein a position data producer is equipped in a mobile station such as a cellular phone for producing position data which is send to the base station of the cellular communication system during mobile station location updating procedures.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, wherein the position data generated by Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver can be transmitted via a mobile station such as a cellular phone during mobile station location updating procedures.
In order to accomplish the above objectives, the present invention provides a method of transmitting position data via cellular communication system, which comprises the steps of:
generating a position data by a position data producer;
sending the position data to a mobile station from the position data producer;
attaching the position data to a location registration data stream which is sent by the mobile station to a base station to inform which area does the mobile station currently reside in;
sending the position data along with the location registration data stream to the base station from the mobile station; and
retrieving the position data by the base station.